In the technical field of controlling phytopathogenic fungi affecting plants or crops it is well known to apply active compound compositions comprising biopesticides, for example selected from bacteria, like spore-forming bacteria, or fungi which are not detrimental to the plant or crop to be treated and which biological control agents may be further combined with classical organic chemical antagonists of plant pathogens.
Biopesticides have been defined as a form of pesticides based on micro-organisms (bacteria, fungi, viruses, nematodes, etc.) or natural products (compounds or extracts from biological sources) (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency: http://www.epa.gov/pesticides/biopesticides/).
Biopesticides are typically created by growing and concentrating naturally occurring organisms and/or their metabolites including bacteria and other microbes, fungi, viruses, nematodes, proteins, etc. They are often considered to be important components of integrated pest management (IPM) programmes, and have received much practical attention as substitutes to synthetic chemical plant protection products (PPPs).
Biopesticides fall into two major classes, microbial and biochemical pesticides:                (1) Microbial pesticides consist of bacteria, fungi or viruses (and often include the metabolites that bacteria and fungi produce). Entomopathogenic nematodes are also classed as microbial pesticides, even though they are multi-cellular.        (2) Biochemical pesticides are naturally occurring substances that control pests or provide other crop protection uses as defined below, but are relatively non-toxic to mammals.        
For controlling phytopathogenic fungi several microbial pesticides comprising spore-forming bacteria such as Bacillus subtilis have been described earlier, see e. g. WO 1998/050422; WO 2000/029426; WO 1998/50422 and WO 2000/58442.
WO 2009/0126473 discloses agriculturally acceptable aqueous compositions comprising bacterial or fungal spores contained in an aqueous/organic solvent and which may further comprise insect control agents, pesticides, fungicides or combinations thereof. Spores of bacteria of the genus Bacillus are a preferred species.
WO 2006/017361 discloses compositions for controlling plant pathogens and comprising at least one beneficial bacterium, at least one beneficial fungus, at least on nutrient and at least one compound which extends the effective lifetime of such a composition. The group of beneficial bacteria e.a. comprises bacteria of Paenibacillus polymyxa and Paenibacillus durum. 
EP-A-1 168 922 relates to compositions for affecting plant growth and/or imparting disease resistance comprising at least two plant-growth promoting Rhizobacteria strains and a chitinous compound, wherein said strains are selected from the genera Bacillus, Paenibacillus, Brevibacillus, Virgibacillus, Alicyclobacillus, and Aneurinibacillus. No particular Paenibacillus strains are, however, exemplified in support of the claimed combinations.
WO 1999/059412 discloses a Paenibacillus polymyxa strain PKB1 (bearing ATCC accession no. 202127) active against several phytopathogenic fungi.
WO 2006/016558 discloses Paenibacillussp. strains BS-0048, BS-0074, BS-0277 and P. polymyxa strain BS-0105 as well as fusaricidin A and fusaricidin B for protection of plants from infections with fungi. A further antifungal Paenibacillus strain BRF-1 has been isolated from soybean rhizosphere (African J. Microbiol. Res. 4(24), 2692-2698, 2010).
WO 2011/069227 discloses a P. polymyxa strain JB05-01-1 (bearing ATCC accession no. PTA-10436) having a highly inhibitory effect against pathogenic bacteria, pre-dominantly foodborne human pathogenic bacteria.
Budi et al. (Appl Environ Microbiol, 1999, 65, 5148-5150) have isolated Paenibacillus sp. strain B2 from mycorrhizosphere of Sorghum bicolor having antagonistic activity towards soil borne fungal pathogens like Phytophthora parasitica. 
A Paenibacillus peoriae strain 11.D.3 isolated by Delaporte, B. (Lab Cytol Veg, Paris, France) and deposited in the open collection of Agricultural Research Service, USDA, U.S.A. under the NRRL Accession No. BD-62 (Int. J. Syst Bacteriol. 46(4), 988-1003, 1996, hereinafter also referred to as strain BD-62) from soil in Cote d'Ivoire showed antifungal activity against several phytopathogenic bacteria and fungi (J. Appl. Microbiol. 95, 1143-1151, 2003). NRRL is the abbreviation for the Agricultural Research Service Culture Collection, an international depositary authority for the purposes of deposing microorganism strains under the BUDAPEST TREATY ON THE INTERNATIONAL RECOGNITION OF THE DEPOSIT OF MICROORGANISMS FOR THE PURPOSES OF PATENT PROCEDURE, having the address National Center for Agricultural Utilization Research, Agricultural Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, 1815 North University Street, Peoria, Ill. 61604, USA.
The antimicrobial activity of numerous Paenibacillus strains, i. a. a P. peoriae strain, against numerous bacterial, fungal and yeast pathogens has been reported elsewhere (Lett. Appl. Microbiol. 43, 541-547, 2006).
Raza et al. (Brazilian Arch. Biol. Techol. 53, 1145-1154, 2010; Eur. J. Plant Pathol. 125: 471-483, 2009) described a fusaricidin-type compound-producing Paenibacillus polymyxa strain SQR-21 effective against Fusarium oxysporum. 
Fusaricidins are a group of antibiotics isolated from Paenibacillus spp., which belong to the class of cyclic lipodepsipeptides. Their common structural features which are conserved throughout the family are as follows: a macrocyclic ring consisting of 6 amino acid residues, three of which are L-Thr, D-allo-Thr and D-Ala, as well as the 15-guanidino-3-hydroxypentadecanoic acid tail attached to the N-terminal L-Thr residue by an amide bond (ChemMedChem 7, 871-882, 2012; J. Microbiol. Meth. 85, 175-182, 2011, Table 1 herein). These compounds are cyclized by a lactone bridge between the N-terminal L-Thr hydroxyl group and the C-terminal D-Ala carbonyl group. The position of the amino acid residues within the depsipeptide cycle are usually numbered starting with the abovementioned L-Thr which itself also carries the GHPD chain and ending with the C-terminal D-Ala. Non-limiting examples of fusaricidins isolated from Paenibacillus are designated LI-F03, LI-F04, LI-F05, LI-F07 and LI-F08 (J. Antibiotics 40(11), 1506-1514, 1987; Heterocycles 53(7), 1533-1549, 2000; Peptides 32, 1917-1923, 2011) and fusaricidins A (also called LI-F04a), B (also called LI-F04b), C (also called LI-F03a) and D (also called LI-F03b) (J. Antibiotics 49(2), 129-135, 1996; J. Antibiotics 50(3), 220-228, 1997). The amino acid chain of a fusaricidin is not ribosomally generated but is generated by a non-ribosomal peptide synthetase. Structural formulae of known fusaricidins are shown in Table 1 (Biotechnol Lett. 34, 1327-1334, 2012; FIG. 1 therein). The compounds designated as LI-F03a, LI-F03b up to LI-F08a and LI-F08b are herein also referred to as fusaricidins LI-F03a, LI-F03b up to LI-F08a and LI-F08b due to their structure within the fusaricidin family (see Table 1).
TABLE 1Structures of the fusaricidin family.FusaricidinX2X3X5A (LI-F04a)D-ValL-ValD-AsnB (LI-F04b)D-ValL-ValD-GlnC (LI-F03a)D-ValL-TyrD-AsnD (LI-F03b)D-ValL-TyrD-GlnLI-F05aD-ValL-IleD-AsnLI-F05bD-ValL-IleD-GlnLI-F06aD-allo-IleL-ValD-AsnLI-F06bD-allo-IleL-ValD-GlnLI-F07aD-ValL-PheD-AsnLI-F07bD-ValL-PheD-GlnLI-F08aD-IleL-allo-IleD-AsnLI-F08bD-IleL-allo-IleD-Gln                wherein an arrow defines a single (amide) bond either between the carbonyl moiety of GHPD and the amino group of L-Thr (L-threonine) or between the carbonyl group of one amino acid and the amino group of a neighboring amino acid, wherein the tip of the arrow indicates the attachment to the amino group of said amino acid L-Thr or of said neighboring amino acid; and        wherein the single line (without an arrow head) defines a single (ester) bond between the carbonyl group of D-Ala (D-alanine) and the hydroxyl group of L-Thr; and wherein GHPD is 15-guanidino-3-hydroxypentadecanoic acid.        
Among isolated fusaricidin antibiotics, fusaricidin A has shown the most promising antimicrobial activity against a variety of clinically relevant fungi and gram-positive bacteria such a Staphylococcus aureus (MIC value range: 0.78-3.12 μg/ml) (ChemMedChem 7, 871-882, 2012). The synthesis of fusaricidin analogues that contain 12-guanidino-dodecanoic acid (12-GDA) or 12-aminododecanoic acid (12-ADA) instead of naturally occurring GHPD has been established but the replacement of GHPD by 12-ADA resulted in complete loss of the antimicrobial activity while the replacement of GHPD by 12-GDA retained antimicrobial activity (Tetrahedron Lett. 47, 8587-8590, 2006; ChemMedChem 7, 871-882, 2012).
Fusaricidins A, B, C and D are also reported to inhibit plant pathogenic fungi such as Fusarium oxysporum, Aspergillus niger, Aspergillus oryzae, and Penicillum thomii (J. Antibiotics 49(2), 129-135, 1996; J. Antibiotics 50(3), 220-228, 1997). Fusaricidins such as LI-F05, LI-F07 and LI-F08 have been found to have certain antifungal activity against various plant pathogenic fungi such as Fusarium moniliforme, F. oxysporum, F. roseum, Giberella fujkuroi, Helminthosporium sesamum and Penicillium expansum (J. Antibiotics 40(11), 1506-1514, 1987). Fusaricidins also have antibacterial activity to Gram-positive bacteria including Staphylococcus aureus (J. Antibiotics 49, 129-135, 1996; J. Antibiotics 50, 220-228, 1997). In addition, fusaricidins have antifungal activity against Leptosphaeria maculans which causes black root rot of canola (Can. J. Microbiol. 48, 159-169, 2002). Moreover, fusaricidins A and B and two related compounds thereof, wherein D-allo-Thr is bound via its hydroxyl group to an additional alanine using an ester bridge, produced by certain Paenibacillus strains were found to induce resistance reactions in cultured parsley cells and to inhibit growth of Fusarium oxysporum (WO 2006/016558; EP 1 788 074 A1).
WO 2007/086645 describes the fusaricidin synthetase enzyme and its encoding gene as isolated from Paenibacillus polymyxa strain E681 which enzyme is involved in the synthesis of fusaricidins A, B, C, D, LI-F03, LI-F04, LI-F05, LI-F07 and LI-F08.
The genome of several Paenibacillus polymyxa strains has been published so far: inter alia for strain M-1 (NCBI acc. no. NC_017542; J. Bacteriol. 193 (29), 5862-63, 2011; BMC Microbiol. 13, 137, 2013), strain CR1 (GenBank acc. no. CP006941; Genome Announcements 2 (1), 1, 2014) and strain SC2 (GenBank acc. nos. CP002213 and CP002214; NCBI acc. no. NC_014622; J. Bacteriol. 193 (1), 311-312, 2011), for further strains see legend of FIG. 12 herein. The P. polymyxa strain M-1 has been deposited in China General Microbiological Culture Collection Center (CGMCC) under acc. no. CGMCC 7581.
Montefusco et al. describe in Int. J. Systematic Bacteriol. (43, 388-390, 1993) a novel bacterial species of the genus Bacillus and suggest the name Bacillus peoriae which may be distinguished from other Bacillus strains as for example Bacillus badius, B. coagulans, B. polymyxa and others. Said novel Bacillus strain is reported to produce spores, to be gram-positive and to produce catalase, without producing oxidase. Further biochemical characteristics are summarized therein. The strain, which may be isolated from soil or rotting vegetable materials, was designated BD-57 and was deposited at the Agricultural Research Service, USDA, U.S.A. as NRRL B-14750 and also at the DSMZ (see below) as strain DSM 8320. Based on further biochemical and genetic analysis said strain later has been renamed as Paenibacillus peoriae (see Int. J. Systematic Bacteriol. 46, 988-1003, 1996). A more recent assessment of the diversity of Paenibacillus spp. in the maize rhizosphere using PCR-DGGE method was described in J. Microbiol. Methods 54, 213-231, 2003.
Biopesticides for use against crop diseases have already established themselves on a variety of crops. For example, biopesticides already play an important role in controlling downy mildew diseases. Their benefits include: a 0-Day Pre-Harvest Interval and the ability to use under moderate to severe disease pressure.
A major growth area for biopesticides is in the area of seed treatments and soil amendments. Biopesticidal seed treatments are e. g. used to control soil borne fungal pathogens that cause seed rots, damping-off, root rot and seedling blights. They can also be used to control internal seed borne fungal pathogens as well as fungal pathogens that are on the surface of the seed. Many biopesticidal products also show capacities to stimulate plant host defenses and other physiological processes that can make treated crops more resistant to a variety of biotic and abiotic stresses.
However, biopesticides under certain conditions can also have disadvantages, such as high specificity (requiring an exact identification of the pest/pathogen and the use of multiple products), slow speed of action (thus making them unsuitable if a pest outbreak is an immediate threat to a crop), variable efficacy due to the influences of various biotic and abiotic factors (since biopesticides are usually living organisms, which bring about pest/pathogen control by multiplying within the target insect pest/pathogen), and resistance development.
Therefore there is a need for further bacterial strains and for further antimicrobial metabolites which antagonize phytopathogenic microorganisms, in particular fungi, which are characterized by a broad spectrum of activity against all classes of phytopathogenic fungi.